Torrington Board of Ed apologizes to The Register Citizen for not properly posting special meeting notice

By Register Citizen Staff

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

TORRINGTON >> The city's Board of Education has issued an apology to The Register Citizen for not properly posting a special meeting it held in November.

The Register Citizen filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint against the board on Nov. 7 after it held a special meeting on Nov. 5, which was called in a last-minute move to discuss allegations made against the board in and by The Register Citizen newspaper. A vote was taken at the meeting to condemn The Register Citizen's recent criticism of a board policy that prohibits individual members from speaking to the press or communicating to the public outside of official meetings.

State meeting law requires all boards and commissions to publicly post notice of special meetings at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

The scheduled meeting at 6 p.m., a Monday, was not posted outside the City Clerk's office at town hall until 10:39 a.m. the same day. Because the meeting was on a Monday, the law would have required the meeting to be posted no later than 6 p.m. on Friday evening, Nov. 2, to give members of the public a proper chance to attend.

Email correspondence between an assistant city clerk and the superintendent's assistant shows the request to post the meeting wasn't made until 6:10 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 4.

The Register Citizen chose to go to mediation over the complaint rather than take the case to a hearing with the Freedom of Information Commission. It asked the board to acknowledge its mistake and to agree to be more careful in the future. In its letter to The Register Citizen, school board Chairman Kenneth Traub says "It is the intention of the Torrington Board of Education to be in compliance with all of our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information (Act). We apologize for any inconvenience this caused the Register Citizen newspaper."